Here and Now

At 11:30 a.m., Rep. Kathleen Rice and the recently appointed director of the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program, deputy associate administrator for Insurance and Mitigation Roy Wright, will hold a press availability to answer questions and discuss superstorm Sandy recovery, Long Beach Boardwalk at National Boulevard (outside the Allegria Hotel), Long Beach, Long Island. (At 9:30 a.m., they will meet with state and local officials in a closed-press event at the Long Beach city manager’s office).

At 1 p.m., Rep. Chris Gibson will visit Opportunities for Otsego and discuss the agency’s work to combat poverty, 3 W Broadway, Oneonta.

At 1:30 p.m., the Assembly Committees on Children and Families and Social Services hold a closed-press roundtable discussion on childhood poverty, the first of several meetings on the issue, Council Chambers, Rochester City Hall, room 302-A, 30 Church St., Rochester.

At 2:30 p.m., NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio will make an announcement related to roof replacement at NYCHA, Queensbridge South Houses, 21st Street and Queens Plaza North, Queens.

Business bigwigs — some with ties to Gov. Andrew Cuomo — have reportedly begun discussing the possibility of bankrolling an early effort to go after NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in hopes of further weakening him in advance of the 2017 elections.

A cop in de Blasio’s security detail was shot with a pellet gun last night outside Gracie Mansion. The officer and her partner were getting out of an unmarked police car near the Upper East Side residence shortly after 7 p.m. when she “felt pain in the lower back.”

The mayor and his family “were not in harm’s way at all,” police said.

Over 300 topless protesters bashed de Blasio’s effort to banish the bare-breasted painted ladies of Times Square during a march yesterday.

The group of women participated in the annual Topless Parade from Columbus Circle to Bryant Park, while some men took pictures and video.

The parade was among dozens of such events staged in about 60 cities on the worldwide GoTopless Day.

The open-air malls in de Blasio’s New York may be filled with an unusual number of aggressive performers — heavily or barely costumed — but he is not the first mayor to wrestle with the consequences of turning streets into pedestrian spaces.

The NYT editorializes: “Times Square is not going to hell, or anywhere near hell’s vicinity. Mr. de Blasio’s enemies have been predicting New York’s downfall since before the mayor took office. He should not be feeding their false narrative by panicking over some localized crudeness.”

Hundreds of Nassau County contracts worth a total of nearly $10 million have been awarded in recent years at amounts just dollars below the threshold for legislative approval. Many of the pacts went to politically connected companies without competitive bidding – and were never openly discussed, debated or voted on, a Newsday investigation found.

A Brooklyn-based home health-care service, Empire State Home Care Services, has agreed to pay $6 million as part of a settlement with AG Eric Schneiderman to resolve allegations of improper Medicaid billing, highlighting the state’s heightened attention to fraud in this growing industry.

Buffalo School Board member Carl Paladino already is complaining about new Superintendent Kriner Cash’s appointment and says he will not support Cash unless he hires certain people for cabinet positions. Paladino is drawing battle lines, not just with the new superintendent, but with the new state education commissioner.

Republican 2016 candidate Donald Trump said the potential entrance into the race of VP Joe Biden won’t make any difference because the former US senator is the same sort of Democrat as Hillary Clinton, though she’s “damaged” because of her “email thing.”

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said she admires Clinton, calling the former secretary of state “hardworking” and “intelligent,” but also blasted the 2016 Democratic front-runner for lying.

Despite the furor over her ­e-mail server, Clinton got a warm welcome from a wealthy Hamptons crowd at a fundraiser Saturday. One attendee said the candidate seemed “energetic” and spoke for 15 minutes.

Trump notched his third magazine cover story in two weeks, after reports emerged indicating that he would gloss the front page of the ubiquitous pop culture mag Rolling Stone.

US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that he “strongly” supports the agreement reached by six world powers and Iran meant to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions – vowing that he will do “everything in my power” to defend the deal.

US Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, on the same day this month, followed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, all used the blogging platform Medium to lay out their views on the Iran agreement. The senators are divided on the issue, with Gillibrand in favor, and Schumer opposed. Nadler plans to vote “yes.”

Two yeshiva graduates are echoing complaints critics have made for years about the rudimentary level of secular education at private schools serving New York’s Hasidic communities. Now, for the first time, the NYC Department of Education is investigating more than three dozen of the schools to make sure their instruction is up to the most basic standards.

Midway through her second year in office, NYC Public Advocate Tish James, a former public defender, is using her Legal experience and instincts to help define her role as public advocate. As of last week, she was the listed plaintiff in nine lawsuits and four amicus briefs, mostly against city agencies – more than her three immediate predecessors combined filed over 20 years.

Many Americans, especially public-school parents, give low marks to rating a teacher based partly on how students perform on standardized tests, according to a survey by the Gallup Poll.

Assemblyman Ron Kim, whose Flushing, Queens, district includes many nail salon owners and workers, is calling on Cuomo to drop a requirement that owners purchase bonds as security in case they’re busted for unpaid wages, arguing that the bonds are not “readily available in the marketplace.”

With New York’s fast food workers poised to see their hourly wage raise to $15, Ulster County Legislature Chairman John Perele wants the same for county employees.

Prompted by a spurt of new minimum wage proposals in major cities, an expanding number of restaurateurs are experimenting with no-tipping policies as a way to manage rising labor costs.

NYC has wasted more than $1.2 million in the past five years delivering legal papers by hand when it could easily use a free electronic system, say state officials and lawyers.

A heartbroken mom who spent four years looking for her missing teenage son — only to find out he’d mistakenly been buried in a potter’s field — wants Cuomo to approve legislation designed to prevent such heartache for others. Dr. Anita Fowler is urging the governor to ratify the so-called Lamont Dottin Bill, named for her only child, who disappeared Oct. 16, 1995, from St. Albans, Queens.

The Erie County Bar Association’s Judiciary Committee will evaluate DA Frank Sedita’s qualifications to become a judge, even though a cross-endorsement by the major parties of Sedita and another candidate for two State Supreme Court seats would give voters no choice, regardless of how he’s rated.

State officials are expanding a program targeting youths struggling with mental illness. New York’s Office of Mental Health started the OnTrackNY initiative two years ago to provide services and treatment to young adults experiencing their first episode of psychosis.